Reimagining Sustainability (Asynchronous - Online Only)
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Sustaining Trust, Sustaining Society: A Green Future Realized View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Tim Weldon
Foundational to post-pandemic sustainability, implicit in the recovery of a Green economy, is the reality of trust. Within the ambience of the sociopolitical, trust, or the manifest confidence in the reliability of others, as individuals and in organizations, allows individuals to flourish within a nexus of safety, open communication, and free engagement. Participation in this vital social contract means understanding and committing to a future which can only thrive where trust is present. Cultural/social sustainability and trust are indissolubly linked; as are the expectations and successes of a Green economic recovery. This paper examines how the expansion and strengthening of social trust will make for a future wherein sustainability means living better.
Global Sustainability and the End of the Tax State: A Holistic Approach Based on the Paradigm of Purposeful Systems View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Maximilian M. Etschmaier
The concept of sustainability is viewed as indivisibly involving all systems that include the human element. In addition to the natural and physical environment, these include social and metaphysical systems. All represent the effect of human efforts and are interdependent; all need to be considered in solutions to global sustainability. A system of systems model is used to represent global sustainability in terms of the paradigm of purposeful systems. Economic tools together with Kantian ethics are used to balance competing interests and environmental burdens. Social harmony is assured by following Schumpeter’s prediction of the end of the tax state.
Sustainability as a Form of Empire: Rethinking How We Conceptualize Energy, Technology, and the Future View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session H Peter Steeves
“Sustainability” is generally considered to be a value on which we can all agree. In this inter-disciplinary study (which includes both a lecture and a live dance performance), I challenge the role that sustainability plays in thinking about our future by tracing its origins within imperialist ideology. I argue that “sustainability” is a term invented by the ruling class with the hope of keeping their current way of life with as few changes as possible. Sustainability conceptually begins with the assumption that we keep the values of dominant Western society today, but just find a way to make that lifestyle more stable so that it can spread, thrive, and last. This ignores the fundamental problem that it is precisely such values that have led to our current crises—from the pandemic to global warming and beyond. The values championed by the status quo (e.g., radical individualism, endless growth, a view of tools as value-neutral, a conception of prosperity based on consumption, etc.) are those that stand in direct opposition to our true mutual flourishing. Along the way I discuss the way in which a phenomenology of technology and an historical tracing of the concept of “energy” help shed light on the problem. And I conclude by pointing to the limits that rational discourse face when up against these problems compared to thinking “with” art. The review concludes with a live Javanese dance performance meant to help us think beyond sustainability as we imagine a radically better future.
Collective Action: The Forgotten Pillar of Sustainable Climate Policy View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Björn Hassler
Climate change is the largest challenge of our times. Although irreducible changes in biophysical and societal systems can yet only be speculated upon, enough is known to warrant increased efforts to mitigate emission of greenhouse gasses. Despite the overwhelming scientific research showing the need for action, surprisingly little is done. There are gaps between words and action and calls for governments to do more are often loud, but social science research is remarkably silent on realistic analyses of how to choose and implement appropriate and sustainable policy tools. Individual action is not sufficient, policy tools are not only are cost-effective but as importantly perceived as legitimate by the public and therefore politically viable. Collective action theory can be used to analyse the circumstances individual incentives are compatible with collective action, that is, what is required to turn individual willingness to act into support of political strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Sweden has been selected for this case study because of its long record of proactive environmental policies and recent transformative turn towards low-carbon industrial production in steel and mining sectors as well as in large scale battery production. Using collective action theory as an analytical framework, Swedish national political climate mitigation strategies are analysed, probing to what extent both cost-effectiveness and public legitimacy is addressed in selection and development of specific policy tools. This study provides both improved understanding of the roles of effectiveness and legitimacy in climate policy, and policy implications for sustainable climate policy.
Wu Wei, New Ethical Design Aesthetics View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Paolo Grazioli
Designers and manufacturers should aim at evolving a new, more mature aesthetic models that should reflect an ethic model of sustainability based on the philosophical concept of "Wu Wei” (Chinese, literally “non-doing”), an important concept of Taoism and means “effortless action”, or in other words, action that does not involve struggle or excessive effort. The application of the theory of Wu Wei to product development would introduce the ethical element to the design discourse, through the idea of always seeking balance between action (development) and resources (nature).
Non-human Time: An Environmental Approach to the Problem of Progress View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Rachel Dale
This paper takes a look at the way that human—particularly Western—conceptions of progress have affected the biologic and geological structuring of time, ultimately arguing for why a concept of “non-human time” is useful to literary studies. By focusing on the impacts of human social and political temporal structures on Earth’s ecology, I expose the problems with the capitalist ideology of progress, building off of Walter Benjamin’s arguments in “Theses on the Philosophy of History.” I begin my argument by investigating the standard human understanding of time as it is described by literary theorists like Elizabeth Grosz and Wai Chee Dimock. Then, using the theoretical foundations of non-human and material agency, I argue against the passive view of temporality and build out Dipesh Chakrabarty’s claim that the human species has acted as a geologic force on the Earth. I theorize that humanity, by privileging capitalist development and rapid rates of industrialization and profit-driven agriculture, has increased the rate of change for the planet as a whole, culminating in the climate crisis that exists today. My concept of “non-human time”—or time that manifests slowly, remains unmeasured, and disrupts human activity—challenges the dominant narrative of progress and offers an ideological alternative that would be productive for literary and cultural critics to pursue.
Featured Anthropowaste : Redesigning the Waste Stream Journey View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sofia Catalina Fiorentino Sarrate
This project explores alternative production systems in garment manufacturing, focusing on re-integrating textile waste streams from a systematic design level perspective with the ultimate goal of phasing waste out. Through ancient handcraft methods such as loom weaving, I propose to expand the up-cycling techniques within the existing industrial context and fashion system as we know it, speculating on new approaches to redirect fabric scraps back into the production line and ultimately fully up-cycle garments. This research takes a look at the potential of production by-product as a “raw material” with the aim of extending textiles’ longevity and life-span and re-looping the unwanted textiles into both the garment design and manufacturing processes. By leading with an experimental and design-by-doing approach, as well as a phenomenological approach, I address the challenges in re-wiring the fashion industry and transitioning to systems that don’t have such a fatal effect in our environment. ANTHROPOWASTE proposes the re-visiting of the roots of garment making, by looking at the way fabric is woven, and redesigning the process of garment manufacturing to implement the use of the so-called textile “waste” (fabric scraps) as raw material to weave textiles back together and create fully up-cycled garments. With doing this, I question the systems in place within designing and manufacturing in the fashion world and invite the reader to dismantle these with me by introducing methods that work within a scarcity mindset and rely on innovation and creativity to gradually re-haul the existing structures in place.
Featured Ecocide and Rights of Nature Law in the UK: Adopting a Hybrid Approach to Ecosystem Protection View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jodie Bettis
In 2021, post-Brexit environmental law making in the UK opened up debate as to how the law can better protect ecosystems from severe destruction and deterioration. As part of the state-of-the-art review for a PhD entitled ‘Theory and Practice of Ecocide Law in the UK’, this paper explores the British legal context of the introduction of Ecocide and Rights of Nature Law as a solution to the twin crises of global warming and ecological breakdown. It suggests a multipronged approach to the next opportunity to legally recognise nature rights and criminalise ecocide. Starting from the first appearance of the term ‘ecocide’ in the English language and ‘rights of nature’ in the scholarly literature, linguistic definitions of these oft dissociated concepts are set out prior to their legal definitions. Next, ecologically relevant clauses in Criminal Codes, Constitutions and national laws are compared and connected using a simple legal reasoning framework previously used to understand some fundamental legal conceptions as applied in judicial reasoning. Results show that no country in the world has yet codified both concepts concurrently and that although normatively connected, these two legislative approaches to ecosystem protection remain legally distinct. Given the flexibility of UK Statute Law and the potential obligation to transpose eco-legal protections from the international to the domestic level, a future Ecocide and Rights of Nature Law could, in theory, connect both the constitutional and criminal conditions required to eradicate ecocide.
Circularity in Food Manufacturing: Researching the Engagement of UK Food Manufacturing Small and Medium Sized Enterprises with the Circular Economy View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lorna James
The food sector is a key driver of social and environmental pressures, and businesses within this sector are looking to the circular economy for solutions. This research focusses on how UK food manufacturing small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) engage, and how they could become more circular. Data was collected from interviews with 10 UK food manufacturing SMEs. The research suggested that UK food manufacturing SMEs engage with the circular economy to varying extents. All companies had implemented Circular Oriented Approaches (COAs), but none had monitored to guide or prioritise implementation. The most common were aimed at reducing planetary pressures. Companies encountered enablers and barriers to implementing COAs. Enablers connected to other enablers in positive feedback loops, as did the barriers. Enablers and barriers were found to be opposite ends of the same spectrum which created multiplier effects in the system. These generated a ‘race to the top’ or ‘race to the bottom’, with the possibility of tipping points. The interviews uncovered that the following three steps would steer UK food manufacturing SMEs to experience enablers and so better engage with the transition to a circular economy: 1. A cohesive, overarching plan with clear goals for all companies to align to, 2. A package of support including expertise to monitor and translate the plan into business, policies, incentives, funding and networks, and 3. Alignment of indirect stakeholders with forums for discussion, communication channels and education. SMEs should use monitoring to guide adaptation in response to changes within the dynamic global system.
